TRACK 2- DNA

DNA is the title track off of this album and was also the song they performed at the AMAs in 2017.

bright, poppy sound with some EDM influence

not my preferred style of music

However, I do want to commend both V’s opening verse (0:44) for his gorgeous low voice, and Suga’s rap sections (e.g. at 2:00), which I absolutely loved.

“Our encounter is a mathematical formula, the law of religion, the ways of the universe”

DNA talks about a universe-ordained love. Despite exploring the same theme as Intro: Serendipity I found the lyrics of DNAmore cringe-worthy and cheesy, perhaps because the song lacks the simplicity and sincerity of Intro: Serendipity.

Overall, I didn’t like this song a lot simply because it’s not a style of music I enjoy listening to. However, if you are a fan of upbeat and cheesy pop with an EDM influence, then this may well be the song for you.The lyrics don’t do anything for me, but the parts which I pointed out earlier that I did really enjoy raised the rating of this song from a 1/5 to a 1.5/5.

TRACK 3- Best of Me

Best of Me is a b-side track off of this album for which The Chainsmokers helped produce the beat.

features The Chainsmokers, and the beat sounds like a Chainsmokers beat

too repetitive, cliched and predictable

really not for me

“It was raining, it was snowing, but all unhappiness stopped, you brought heaven to me”.

Best of Me is a cheesy love song.

Unfortunately, some of the lyrics in this song just irk me. For example the line “because without you there’s no me” . I hate the romanticising of love that is just so overwhelming that you forget who you are as your own person.

It is important to retain a sense of self and individuality in a relationship and, like many love songs, Best of Me seems to have fallen in to the trap of taking love and passion too far. Apart from this, it’s also a massive cliché and not at all original or interesting.

Overall, even though EDM is not my type of music, I don’t think this is a particularly good EDM song either. Additionally, after looking at the lyrics I began to dislike this song anymore, resulting in me rating it 0/5.

TRACK 4- dimple

actual melody not pleasing, don’t enjoy the interjections (e.g. at 1:55) as they break the flow of the song

“That dimple is illegal”

The lyrics are quite boring and typical of a cheesy love song. It’s also repetitive with not much variation except for two small sections, which often puts me off a song.

I don’t know whether puns like “I call you illegirl” made this song better or worse, although they are funny in a dad-joke type of way.

Overall, the song was just whatever and quite easy for me to overlook. I expect it could appeal to some people’s personal preferences as it isn’t a bad song, the sound just wasn’t for me and I’m generally not a fan of cheesy or repetitive lyrics. Hence, I give it a 1/5.

Although BTS has written many diss tracks in the past, this is the first time they’ve written one towards their fans. This song displays the kind of down-to-earth sense of humour which makes everyone fall in love with the members.

Despite my great love for the lyrics, I am only going to give it 3/5 simply because the song itself is not the most listenable. The song is great in small quantities, but if you listen to it too often you could end up with a headache!

In terms of lyrics, Suga’s verse at 1:07 is once again my favourite, with lines that are at once scathing, boastful and vulnerable. For example, the reference to Suga’s parent’s lack of support for his chosen career path, makes this song particularly special for those who are familiar with the rapper’s story.

However, generally speaking, this song lacks some of the clever word play which I so enjoyed in Cypher pt. 3 and the lyrics could have been better.

In conclusion, whilst the song itself is very good, some of the lyrics do leave something to be desired and there was little that was particularly outstanding, hence I am giving it 3/5.

TRACK 7- Go Go

Go Go is a song which criticises society, something which has become a trademark of BTS albums and sets them apart from many other artists.

hip-hop song

boasts catchy tune and overall feel-good sound

rap verses mix smoothly with the vocals

no sections stand out as particularly impressive or interesting

annoying if listen to often

One of the group’s most goofy tracks to date, this song seems playful and fun, but actually addresses the struggles of today’s youth.

This dissonance between sound and meaning is entirely intentional and is reflected in the lyrics, helping to communicate that beyond materialism and shallow phrases like “YOLO”, is a much darker and more painful truth about the hardships of being a young person in society.

RM has said: “In Korea, YOLO has become a big key word for young people because we don’t have money and it’s really hard to get a chance to earn a lot of money.” Read more on this here.

Overall, this song has an important and complex meaning, and an egaging sound, although I find it can be a little bit annoying if you listen to it often. I also think that without knowing the meaning, I would not appreciate the song as much as I do due to the repetitive chorus. This repetitiveness is intentional and helps deliver the message of the song, but in terms of listening experience it isn’t the best. Hence, I give the song 2.5/5.

TRACK 8- Outro: Her

Outro: Her features BTS’ three rappers: RM, J-Hope and Suga.

The rap line’s unit songs are usually a hit or miss for me. Not because I don’t like the rap line, because I love them, but simply because I’m not the biggest fan of rap. I like rap in songs, but I struggle to listen to a whole song of just rapping. Hence, the instrumentation becomes really important.

I found this album disappointing. There were a few good songs, but there were too many songs with sappy, cheesy lyrics and annoying or displeasing instrumentation.

Although the whole point of the album was to explore the happy, loving and exciting parts of young love, the album often felt stale and clichéd.

I would have loved to see BTS take a fresh and insightful view on happy love like they do with all of their other concepts, but the route they went feels insincere and unsatisfactory to me. The kind of love explored also felt a little bit unhealthy in some of the songs, as I mentioned previously.

In the context of the entire trilogy, it could be argued that the reason they went this route was to show how this kind of all-consuming love eventually develops into something negative (see my review for Love Yourself 轉 ‘Tear’ tomorrow), and if this is the case then it makes me like the album a bit more and has caused me to increase my rating a little bit,

Overall, this album was not the best album from BTS and I’m giving it a 1.5/5.

If you want to know what my ratings mean please refer to this. A 1.5 star album rating means I liked some of the songs, but not all, and that either the cohesiveness or variety or music quality was good. NOTE: I rate out of 5, however there are 7 levels (5,4,3,2,1,0, N/A).

Who are BTS?

BTS are a South Korean boy group who debuted in June 2013. There are seven members: RM (formerly known as Rap Monster), Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook. V is also an actor and RM, Suga and J-Hope all have solo careers as well.

So that’s it for this review! I hope you enjoyed. This is the beginning of a series for the next couple of days, so watch out for my breakdown of my favourite BTS songs as well as reviews of the rest of the Love Yourself trilogy!

What did you think about this album? Let me know in the comments below!

Thank you for reading this post today! I hope you enjoyed and found some new music to listen to! Happy listening, Keira x.

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Hi! I'm Keira and I'm the author here at Headphones and Hyperboles. It's nice to meet you :) I like to read and listen to music (obviously), but I also really like sleeping, eating chocolate and going for picnics with friends.